Is Senator Kamala Harris Sincere About Supporting Marijuana Reform?

It wasn’t that long ago that many in the political world considered supporting cannabis reform to be political suicide. After Oregon failed to legalize cannabis in 2012 I text my friend that worked at the Oregon Legislature as a staffer and asked him what he thought about the Oregon Legislature stepping up and passing legalization. After explaining to me that he didn’t think legislators would touch an issue that just failed at the ballot box, his exact words to me at the time were, ‘plus it is political suicide.’

Much has changed since 2012. 2012 was the last year that Gallup’s annual marijuana legalization poll showed a majority of Americans supporting cannabis prohibition. After Colorado and Washington State legalized cannabis in 2012 support has surged. Gallup’s poll for 2017 found that 64% of Americans now support legalization.

The rise in support in polling has been paralleled by a rise in support in politics. No longer is support for cannabis reform seen as being political suicide. A growing number of politicians are getting on the right side of history with every passing election. Some were voted in, but many more are lawmakers that have had an expressed ‘change of heart.’ It is always hard to tell if a former opponent/non-supporter is sincere when they change their stance on cannabis policy, as I have written about before from an industry perspective.

With politicians, it’s a little different than with the cannabis industry in that they have the actual power to change cannabis laws. In the cannabis industry, it’s easy to disregard people for being the greedy opportunistic jacktivists that some members are in the cannabis space. But in the game of politics, having someone that is willing and able to change cannabis policy is a significant thing, and thus the cannabis movement basically needs all of the votes in Congress (and state legislatures) that they can get.

But that’s not to say that just because a politician expresses support for cannabis reform that they should be supported at all costs. Last week Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he was rescinding Obama-era guidance which provided some protections for states that have legalized cannabis. A flood of outrage came out of not only the cannabis activist community, but also from a laundry list of federal politicians. Tom Angell has a stellar list on his website Marijuana Moment which I encourage everyone to check out.

The outpouring was very inspiring to see. But there was one politician that was quickly called out by Tom Angell, and rightfully so because her support for cannabis reform seems much more opportunistic than it does sincere. Below are some of Tom’s tweets:

Kamala Harris is building a fundraising email list with her new marijuana petition but she still hasn’t taken the simple step of adding her name as a cosponsor of any marijuana bills

That’s true, but you should also spend less time tweeting and more time actually adding your name as a cosponsor to any of the several pending marijuana reform bills your colleagues have already introduced. https://t.co/nbPz6aoaHj

Kamala Harris could add her name to any of these cannabis bills: From descheduling to banking to tax fairness to research to even just hemp. She’s done literally nothing to advance marijuana reform as a senator except tweet and mention “grandma’s medical marijuana” in speeches. pic.twitter.com/e8p9U30uyY

Don’t think we don’t see what you’re doing, Kamala Harris. 2020 Democratic primary voters who care about marijuana will reward candidates who have actually worked to change laws, not those who once laughed at us and then tried to fundraise off our success. Do better. Now. https://t.co/LkAccX1wbf

Kamala Harris is late to the party on marijuana reform and she knows it. Her options are to cosponsor a bill already filed by likely 2020 rival — Booker — perfectly demonstrating how she’s not a leader, or to do the hard work of crafting a new bill. Either way, must do something.

Even staunch prohibitionist Dianne Feinstein is at least sponsoring a bill to make marijuana research a little easier. But supposedly progressive @KamalaHarris is nowhere to be seen, except building a fundraising email list with her lame new marijuana petition. Do something real. https://t.co/mPzPUTdllv

Some of these bills are far-reaching enough to effectively end federal marijuana prohibition. Others would just expand access to CBD extracts or make cannabis research easier. The main point is that these GOP lawmakers are doing *something* while Harris does *nothing*. https://t.co/mPzPUTdllv

Tom, as always, is crushing it. If you have not already signed up to support his work, you really need to do so. I do, and everyone else should that cares about cannabis reform because he is a one-man cannabis reform army. Tom was not the only prominent cannabis activist to call out Senator Harris. Shaleen Title, who is on the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission and is an all-around freedom fighting amazing activist, tweeted the following:

I admire you generally, @SenKamalaHarris, but how can you tweet about this every day using both your accounts and not cosponsor any of the federal marijuana bills? POC are going to jail. I could go to jail. Please don’t use this issue for popularity until you’re doing something. https://t.co/1hp6pfulkB

Politicians that are sincere about cannabis reform should be welcomed into the cannabis community (within reason). But when all a politician does is collect cannabis reform supporters’ e-mail addresses for the likely purpose of spamming them for campaign contributions in the future, while simultaneously doing nothing to actually support cannabis, that’s not OK. Clearly, Senator Harris is currently a politician that is just trying to capitalize on the moment, but does not truly support cannabis reform.

Senator Kamala Harris needs to step up and introduce a bill or at least co-sponsor a bill. I am by no means saying to condemn Kamala Harris forever because I am hopeful that she will finally be inspired enough to do something meaningful for cannabis reform. But I do think that no cannabis supporter should provide her their e-mail address until she puts some action behind her tweets.

As Tom tweeted above, there are a number of bills that Senator Harris could add her name to. If she wanted to craft something of her own, I am sure that reform organizations and activists would be more than willing to help her out in order to create something stellar. If you want to help urge Senator Harris to really get on the right side of history, you can contact her office at this link here. Let her know what you think.

By the way, you will see on the contact form page that Senator Harris lists 30 different issues someone can select from as part of the contact form. Cannabis is not one of them…

Johnny Green is a cannabis activist from Oregon. Johnny has a bachelor's degree in public policy, and believes that the message should always be more important than the messenger. #LegalizeIt #FreeThePlant

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